Letter to the Editor: I was delighted that Ke Huy Quan was a successful part of the Oscars ceremony this year. Ke Huy played Short Round in the popular movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984.
He has had an interesting life.
He was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1971. He fled Vietnam with his family in 1978, eventually being admitted to the USA a year later.
Apart from acting, he has been involved in film production.
He has given much back to the country which adopted him. Thank God they were welcomed in the USA!
Of course, had he turned up in a small boat on our shores in the coming years, he’d be held in prison, returned to Vietnam or, if there’s room, to Rwanda. I rather think that would be our loss.
As I write, people across the world are facing the most terrible conditions imaginable due to war, oppressive regimes, climate change and natural disaster.
Most migrants from such places are moving to bordering countries, not to Western soil. There will be no “100 million” (the number spoken of by MP, Scott Benton) or even “a billion” (Suella Braverman) knocking on Dover’s doors.
No, the Tories are throwing ‘red meat’ to that rather unpleasant element within the British far right.
They should remember, when you invite a tiger into your life and feed it red meat, it will eat you when you run out.
All this is about a General Election.
Having had 13 years in government the Tories want you to forget the NHS, the cost of living crisis, fuel costs, Partygate, sewage in our rivers and seas, Hancock, corruption, nepotism and money to mates, the disastrous Afghan withdrawal, covid deaths, strikes, the highest inflation in the G7, tractor porn, education, cuts to police numbers, and over a decade of failure dealing with migration. No, “Never mind those things: look, I’ve got a tiger over here! Grrrr!”
It’s the Christian season of Lent, so I’ll end with the words of Jesus: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me...Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25.35b and 40b), NRSV)
David Parry. Broadwell.